The following statement from CodePink Ontario was sent to the York Region Paramedics management and to York Region Council. Names, titles, and email addresses of the recipients can be found here .

To York Region Management and Municipal Administration: 

CodePink Ontario condemns in the strongest terms your discriminatory firing of labour leader and paramedic Katherine Grzejszczak. Your decision is not only unjust, it is a blatant act of racist, anti-Palestinian repression against a worker who has spent her career saving lives and standing up for justice.

On June 20, 2025 you fired Katherine for expressing solidarity with Palestinians enduring genocide. Katherine has served York Region since 2010, led her CUPE local for six years, and currently serves on CUPE Ontario’s executive board. Days before her termination, she spoke out publicly against Israel’s mass killing of civilians—including paramedics—and called on workers to join an anti-war rally.

Instead of respecting her right to free expression, you chose to silence her. This decision mirrors the very violence she was calling out. While Israel bombs ambulances and massacres paramedics in Gaza, York Region management chose to target and punish a Canadian paramedic for standing in solidarity with her colleagues abroad.

This is not the first time Katherine has been attacked for her support of Palestine. When Zionist groups tried to have her removed as CUPE local president in 2024 for wearing a keffiyeh and displaying a Palestinian flag sticker, CUPE refused to bow to that pressure. York Region, however, has folded to racist, anti-Palestinian rhetoric and sacrificed its own worker to appease it.

We demand:

• Katherine Grzejszczak’s immediate reinstatement with full compensation.
• An end to York Region’s complicity in racist, anti-Palestinian silencing.
• Clear policies that protect workers’ rights to speak out against genocide and war crimes.

CodePink Ontario stands with Katherine and with all workers who refuse to be silent in the face of injustice.

We will not stop until Palestine is free, and until Canadian institutions stop enabling this genocide.

CodePink Ontario